The Most Important Life Lesson Old People Say You Need To Know
老人们给你的人生建议
Karl Pillemer of Cornell University interviewed nearly 1500 people age 70 to 100+ for his book “30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans.” He asked them what life lessons they’d pass on.
Karl Pillemer在准备自己的新书《人生的30堂课：美国智者所给的真实建议》时，曾采访了近1500名年龄从70到100多岁的老人。并请他们给人们一些生活建议。
What piece of advice were they more adamant about than any other? More adamant about than lessons regarding marriage, children and happiness?
其中有一条建议是他们坚决要告诉大家的，而且比婚姻，育儿以及幸福方面的经验教训还要重要。
Do not stay in a job you dislike.
那就是不要坚持做一份不喜欢的工作。
Via 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans:
《人生的30堂课：美国智者所给的真实建议》是这样写的：
You know those nightmares where you are shouting a warning but no sound comes out? Well, that’s the intensity with which the experts wanted to tell younger people that spending years in a job you dislike is a recipe for regret and a tragic mistake. There was no issue about which the experts were more adamant and forceful. Over and over they prefaced their comments with, “If there’s one thing I want your readers to know it’s . . .” From the vantage point of looking back over long experience, wasting around two thousand hours of irretrievable lifetime each year is pure idiocy.
你是否有过这样一个恶梦：梦中你大喊救命，但无人应答?这种紧张程度无异于你一直从事于一份不喜欢的工作，这是一种导致你后悔和犯错的根本原因。这些美国的智者们从不会强调或让你记住任何一条建议，他们只是重复表示：“如果还有什么让大家记住的，那就是……”为了给自己的人生留下美好的回忆，那么每年浪费2000多小时的时间干一份不喜欢的工作绝对是一种白痴行为。
What else did they have to say about career?
对于职业，他们所给的建议还有：
1. Choose a career for the intrinsic rewards, not the financial ones. The biggest career mistake people make is selecting a profession based only on potential earnings. A sense of purpose and passion for one’s work beats a bigger paycheck any day.
1. 找工作时一定要看工作的内在报酬，而非表面报酬。人们通常求职时所犯的最大的错误就是，只看工作的表面工资。你从事这份工作的目的以及是否喜欢远比每天那点工资来的更实在。
2. Don’t give up on looking for a job that makes you happy. According to the experts, persistence is the key to finding a job you love. Don’t give up easily.
2. 坚持找到自己喜欢的工作。这些智者们表示，坚持是找到喜欢的工作的关键。别太早放弃。
3. Make the most of a bad job. If you find yourself in a less-than-ideal work situation, don’t waste the experience; many experts learned invaluable lessons from bad jobs.
3. 从坏工作中学习东西。如果你找到的工作不尽如人意，那么也不要白白浪费时间。许多智者都说，不喜欢的工作也可以教会你一些非常宝贵的经验。
4. Emotional intelligence trumps every other kind. Develop your interpersonal skills if you want to succeed in the workplace. Even people in the most technical professions have their careers torpedoed if they lack emotional intelligence.
4. 情商重于一切。如果你想在工作中成功，一定要发展人际关系。即便是高层的技术人人员，如果不善于交际，情商不高，职业生涯也会陷入瓶颈。
5. Everyone needs autonomy. Career satisfaction is often dependent on how much autonomy you have on the job. Look for the freedom to make decisions and move in directions that interest you, without too much control from the top.
5. 人人都需要自由。职业满足感常常建立于你在工作中可以得到多少自由空间。人们追求无上司约束的自我决策以及行为方向的自由。
Another point worth making is advice the older folks consistently did not give:
还有一点值得注意，这些智者们一再坚持不要给的建议如下：
No one― not a single person out of a thousand― said that to be happy you should try to work as hard as you can to make money to buy the things you want.
1. 没人认为：想要过得幸福就要努力工作挣钱，买自己需要的东西。
No one― not a single person― said it’s important to be at least as wealthy as the people around you, and if you have more than they do it’s real success.
2. 没人认为：你的生活至少要向周围人一样，要不就比他们过得富足，这才是成功。
No one― not a single person― said you should choose your work based on your desired future earning power.
3. 没人认为：你应该根据你所期望的未来薪酬而选择工作。
Now it may sound absurdly obvious when worded in this way. But this is in fact how many people operate on a day-to-day basis. The experts did not say these things; indeed almost no one said anything remotely like them. Instead they consistently urged finding a way to earn enough to live on without condemning yourself to a job you dislike.
说到这里，已经很明显了。而实际上，大多数人都是如此的。这些智者也是，他们没有任何一人说自己一点也不这样。相反，他们都极力鼓励大家努力找到一个挣得够多，而又不讨厌的工作。
This might be a lot to remember and ask yourself on a daily basis. What’s a quick litmus test to determine if you’re on the path to happiness or regret?
也许，每天都有一些值得怀念和反思的东西。那么，用什么方法才能检测出你走的是一条幸福之路还是一条悔恨之路?
You should ask yourself this: do I wake up in the morning looking forward to work?
你应该试着问问自己：每天早上醒来，我是否期盼着去工作呢?